Galloway wins apology over sex allegation

Labour MP Oona King has issued an apology and made a settlement with rival MP George Galloway over allegations she made in a press release last year.

The two MPs are locked in a tight, and increasingly personal, battle for Ms King's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency in London, which Mr Galloway is fighting for the anti-war Respect coalition.

Last week Ms King paid Mr Galloway's legal costs, and made a £1,000 charity donation, over allegations she made in a press conference and press release last year about sexually improper behaviour.

It comes three months after the rebel MP won £150,000 damages from the Daily Telegraph after the paper falsely claimed Mr Galloway was in the pay of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Although the settlement with Ms King came before proceedings were issued, it raises the temperature in one of the most eagerly awaited contests of the forthcoming general election.

Ms King had a 10,000 majority over the Conservatives at the 2001 contest, but came under attack from the large Muslim contigent within her constituency over her support for the Iraq war. She narrowly won a reselection battle last year.

Meanwhile, Mr Galloway was expelled from the Labour party over comments he made comparing the prime minister and President Bush to "wolves" and allegedly backing a Respect candidate in a local byelection.

He continues to sit as MP for Glasgow Kelvin on a Respect ticket. The seat is disappearing under boundary changes at the next election - but Mr Galloway has announced he will be fighting Bethnal Green & Bow at the next election.

Despite poor results nationwide, Respect have a local councillor on Tower Hamlets council and did well in East London as a whole at the European elections last year - although failing to elect an MEP.

Ms King, the parliamentary private secretary to trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt, has strong backing from Labour's high command for her campaign. Police minister Hazel Blears visited her constituency last week.

Ms King told her local paper, the East London Advertiser, she "doesn't have time" to fight Mr Galloway in the courts.

She said: "I'm too busy fighting for the East End. That's why, although Galloway has a lot to answer for, I've settled out of court.

"Instead, I'll fight him at the ballot box."

She added: "It's up to others to decide whether they believe Galloway has behaved improperly."

Her letter to Mr Galloway reads: "I accept that you have never been implicated in sexually improper behaviour towards women, neither have you used, or been accused of using charitable funds to pay for sex with prostitutes in expensive hotels."

She has also promised never to repeat the allegations.

A Respect spokesman said Mr Galloway was "delighted by Oona King's grovelling apology."